Reddit reviews Imagine: How Creativity Works

I'd really like to recommend an actual book about creativity to Randall. No idea how to do that though, and he probably gets tons of suggestions already.

It's Imagine by Jonah Lehrer

I'm currently reading The Black Hole War By Leonard Susskind, Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs, the October 2013 issue of Outside Magazine, and the 9th edition of Mechanics of Materials by R.C. Hibbeler for my deforms midterm tomorrow ):

Some of my favorites have been Born to Run, Moonwalking with Einstein, and Imagine. The combination of Moonwalking with Einstein and Imagine was really interesting and changed a lot of my views on "how terrible the education system is". I was always criticizing the US education system for being focused on memorizing info instead of learning and understanding. I still think the US is still too focused on that, but I see that there are definitely draw-backs to having all of our knowledge "outsourced" to our phones or the internet.

Imagine also gives a ton of insight into the creative process and makes it much more achievable for someone in the sciences who thought they had little creative ability/talent. All really good reads.

OOH!!! I never get to do this, but I've been reading this book, Imagine, and it talks about the effects of marijuana on your brain. (I haven't verified the facts beyond this book, so take it with that grain of salt).

Basically, as expected, you can have a variety of attention spans. What this is, in comp. sci. terms, is your RAM ("working memory") is working to either retain the same bits of data ("focus"), or is neglecting to do so and allowing the right hemisphere to swap it out randomly.

Predictably, the more you focus, the more critically you can analyze, the more productive you can be laterally. The less you focus, the more your brain gets to swap out bits almost randomly through different addresses, which permits you to make seemingly random associations.

These random associations are sometimes determined to have meaning to the thinker, and sometimes meaning to others as well. This last group of thoughts is typically "creativity," as I understand it. The book makes it clear that creativity is meaningless without the drudgery of research or practice or whathaveyou.

So, weed acts to jumble your RAM about. More free associations, less able to stay on task. Stimulants, like amphetamine, puts your ducks in a row, so to speak. Sgt. Adderall gives your RAM a stern lecture on the need for order and control, and you can focus. Critical thought, articulation, intentional memory can all come into play much more effectively, because it turns out that if you've got so much of your RAM occupied on the task at hand, you can still put it to use making the task easier.

Our brains are fucking wonderful.

Jonah Lehrer's Imagine is what came to mind for me. It's okay - a lot of it looks at companies that encourage creativity among their staff (Apple, Pixar, 3M, and a couple of others). There are certain parts that pertain to individual creativity, but (as I recall) it was mostly about creativity in a group or corporate setting. Might be worth the read regardless.